The Tao

Details

Written by Robert Sawicki PhD

Created: 27 June 2007

The Tao

Dr. Robert Sawicki has been a frequent contributor to this project in more ways than one, and, over the years, I've come to notice that there is a great wealth of information that resides within him, especially with respect to the martial arts and the Eastern foundations that underlie them. Learning the physical aspects of the martial arts are one thing; understanding the real concepts that go along with them are another. In this section, Dr. Bob undertakes an approach towards understanding the Tao. doc

I have been asked to write background information on the TAO. Before attempting such a heady task, there needs to be some foundation laid that allows us all to start from approximately the same region of experience.

Differences between Occidental and Oriental perceptions of the world.

Western approaches to perception are based for the most part on consensual reality: that which exists, exists because we all agree that it exists. Eastern perception allows for the individual experience. Eastern perception also allows for individual discovery that may not be shared by anyone else. In the West, religious mystics are viewed as operating in this fashion. However, in the West such "mystical" experience is characterized as occult, metaphysical, and generally unapproachable by the common person; and more generally it is characterized as "unscientific." Once characterized as unscientific such experience is then discounted as everything from unreal to fantasy to aberrant (i.e., crazy).

Eastern perception is based more on emotional content. Much like languages of the East in which a single inflection on a syllable can significantly change the meaning of a word or a sentence, that which arises from personal discovery can significantly change the meaning of what is perceived in the world and how one lives in the world. Such a change in personal orientation can have effects in what a person is able to do. For example, after achieving a certain state of consciousness, a person might change blood pressure, limit breathing, leap higher than ought to be possible by usual standards, or break objects with hands, fingers or feet that should not be breakable by hands, fingers or feet by usual standards.

In the East one achieves that state of conscious through personal discovery, training, meditation, and even perhaps Enlightenment. In the West, someone tries to replicate that state by measuring (e.g., EEG, EKG, metabolic assays, psychological assessment, etc.) a person who has achieved that state. Then once the measures have been validated (with another individual or individuals), someone attempts to re-create the test findings on themselves in the belief that when the test benchmarks are achieved, one will also achieve the same level of consciousness and control. Though it is frequently possible to measure altered states of consciousness, it has not been possible to reach that same state of consciousness by simply achieving the metric benchmarks.

To try to discover the TAO, I ask the reader to set-aside for a moment the need to categorize, measure and relate everything that is read to concrete prior experience. My words will never show you the TAO, since the TAO that can be written is not the true TAO. At best, my words can only be a finger pointing at the moon ….. never confuse the moon with the finger.The TAO

Lao Tzu was a scholar who lived more than 2500 years ago. He lived in an age when people seemed to have lost direction and no longer believed that they had any influence on their day-to-day world. Day by day life felt powerless; people felt that they existed at the whim of everything, from distant leaders to a punishing fate. As he withdrew from a climate marked by hopelessness, Lao Tzu left the Tao Te Ching. Tao referring to the universal laws that affect both people and environment; Te referring to personal power; and Ching loosely translated meaning classic. In summary, the message of the classic work was: Discover who you are …. Sense and learn directly from all that is around you …. Contemplate what you discover and let it percolate through until you learn to trust your perceptions and intuition …. Do not rely on beliefs, ideologies or truths that come from others …. Use attitude instead of action to guide others …… Manage others based on their relationship with you not based on your control of them. Once you have blended with the TAO use the power to direct events without relying on force.

Here are a few excerpts from the Tao Te Ching. Read them as you might observe a mountain sunset without analyzing the color spectrum. Simply let it wash over you and through you; discover what emerges.